After a months-long campaign led by FIRE, the Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) reached a settlement with Professor Walter Kehowski, allowing him to return to teaching classes. Kehowski was placed on forced administrative leave and faced possible termination because he e-mailed George Washington’s Thanksgiving address to the MCCCD community. Kehowski found the address on Pat Buchanan’s website and linked to the site, where Buchanan also discussed his views on immigration and other topics, in the e-mail. Some MCCCD employees were offended, and Kehowski was charged with violating district policies. However, in the end, Kehowski was vindicated in his settlement […]

The Maricopa Community Colleges consisting of the District Support Services Center, Chandler-Gilbert Community College, Estrella Mountain Community College, GateWay Community College, Glendale Community College, Maricopa Skill Center, Mesa Community College, Paradise Valley Community College, Phoenix College, Rio Salado College, Scottsdale Community College and South Mountain Community College, does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex (including sexual harassment and pregnancy), handicap/disability, age, and disabled or Vietnam era veteran status in any of its policies or practices in compliance with Titles VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended; the Civil Rights Act of 1991; Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972; Sections 503 and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act; the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Act of 1974, as amended; and the Age Discrimination Act of 1975.

by Alan Sears Townhall.com Walter Kehowski feels a lot more like celebrating the Fourth of July, now that Thanksgiving is finally behind him. As a math professor, Mr. Kehowski has a pretty keen instinct for things that don’t add up—including a tendency among many of his fellow citizens to divide their celebrations of freedom from any appreciation of the One Who gave us that freedom in the first place. His eye for irony has multiplied his enemies … and very nearly subtracted him from his job. Kehowski teaches at a community college in Glendale, Arizona. Last fall, on the day […]

Glendale Community College, in Arizona, has agreed that Walter Kehowski can keep his job teaching mathematics. Kehowski was placed on leave and was threatened with dismissal because of a Thanksgiving e-mail message he sent, linking to George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1789, which Kehowski found on Pat Buchanan’s Web site. Those links prompted complaints from some professors and disciplinary action against Kehowski. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which backed Kehowski, issued a statement calling his right to return to teaching a victory for free speech. The Maricopa Community College District, of which Glendale is part, issued its own […]

A Maricopa Community Colleges math professor who was threatened with termination for sending college employees an e-mail linking to a conservative Web site will keep his job. College officials Friday announced Friday a settlement with Walter Kehowski, who made national headlines this year after he was placed on administrative leave for sending the e-mail linking to politician Pat Buchanan’s Web site and a transcript of a Thanksgiving proclamation by George Washington. Under the terms of the agreement, the college will allow Kehowski to return to the classroom in the fall. His use of the district e-mail system will be restricted. […]

An e-mail sent six months ago by a Glendale Community College professor to employees of the college district could cost him his job. Math professor Walter Kehowski is facing possible termination because the district says he violated policy, which bans using district e-mail for private or personal matters. But the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a national free-speech group, says it’s much more than that. The November 22nd e-mail, besides including a transcript of George Washington’s Thanksgiving proclamation, contained a link to the Web site of conservative commentator Pat Buchanan. And the Foundation for Individual Rights says Kehowski is […]

More than forty years ago, writer Rod Serling introduced “The Twilight Zone” to American television. The show became a classic and the phrase entered the American lexicon. Mr. Serling’s view was fiction but, in 2007, it appears we’re living in the twilight zone. In 1962, when the show was introduced, could anyone have believed that a college professor would be fired for wishing his colleagues a “Happy Thanksgiving” and sending out George Washington’s “Thanksgiving Day Proclamation of 1789?” Yet in the twilight zone of political correctness, that is exactly what happened to Walter Kehowski, professor of mathematics at Maricopa County […]

A professor at Glendale Community College who sent an e-mail to district employees that contained a link to Pat Buchanan’s Web site and a transcript of a George Washington Thanksgiving proclamation is now facing possible termination. Math Professor Walter Kehowski was placed on paid leave from his job. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a national free-speech group, has taken up his cause and is asking the Maricopa County Community College District to exonerate him. Greg Lukianoff, president of the Philadelphia-based group, said Kehowski is being targeted because of the e-mail, sent Nov. 22, with the 1789 proclamation and […]

A Maricopa Community Colleges professor could be fired after he sent an e-mail to district employees that contained a link to Pat Buchanan’s Web site and a transcript of a George Washington Thanksgiving proclamation. Math Professor Walter Kehowski, who has sent controversial e-mails in the past, was placed on paid leave from his job at Glendale Community College. A national free-speech group, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, has taken up his cause and is asking the Maricopa County Community College District to exonerate him. Greg Lukianoff, president of the Philadelphia-based group, said Kehowski is being targeted because of the […]

Just before last Thanksgiving, Walter Kehowski decided to share some wishes with his colleagues at Glendale Community College. The tenured mathematics professor used a faculty announcement e-mail list to send George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1789. The e-mail that Kehowski sent also indicated his source: the blog of Pat Buchanan. That e-mail could end up costing Kehowski his job, according to documents released Monday by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which is now advising Kehwoski. According to those documents, five employees in the Maricopa Community College District — of which Glendale is a part — filed complaints against […]

A tenured college professor is set to be fired for simply sending out an e-mail to colleagues containing George Washington’s “Thanksgiving Day Proclamation of 1798.” Already professor Walter Kehowski at Glendale Community College in Arizona has been placed on forced administrative leave and the school’s chief has recommended his termination. “It simply boggles the mind that a professor could find himself facing termination simply for e-mailing the Thanksgiving address of our first president,” said Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). On Nov. 22, 2006, the day before Thanksgiving, Kehowski, a professor in mathematics in […]

Walter Kehowski, a math professor at Glendale Community College in Arizona’s Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD), wishes he’d never e-mailed his fellow employees Thanksgiving greetings last November. While reading a Web log, Kehowski found George Washington’s “Thanksgiving Day Proclamation of 1789” and decided to send it along to the Maricopa community the day before Thanksgiving, 2006. Using an e-mail address commonly used to send out announcements, Kehowski e-mailed the text of the proclamation – and a link to the Web page on which hed found it . . . on Pat Buchanan’s site. Within weeks, five employees filed harassment […]

As you may have seen on The Torch this week and last, we have been covering the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Rodriguez v. Maricopa County Community College District, which is an exciting affirmation of the court’s commitment to protecting the First Amendment on campus. The case began with e-mails sent by Glendale Community College Professor Walter Kehowski in 2004 that some of the district’s employees found offensive. As Will mentioned last week, FIRE actually defended Kehowski in a similar case in May 2007. He had been put on administrative leave for e-mailing a Thanksgiving message to his colleagues. On the day before Thanksgiving, Professor […]

In today’s round-up of news bytes, Inside Higher Ed picked up FIRE’s press release announcing that Professor Walter Kehowski has settled his case with the Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD). Yesterday MCCCD put up its statement officially announcing that the settlement has been reached: An agreement has been reached between the Maricopa Community Colleges and Glendale Community College math professor Walter Kehowski that allows the professor to return to the classroom this fall. As part of the agreement, Kehowski’s use of the district e-mail system will be restricted. Both parties agree that no further comment will be […]

FIRE’s press release today celebrates the settlement reached by Professor Walter Kehowski with the Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) allowing him to return to teaching this fall. Kehowski was placed on administrative leave in March when he sent George Washington’s Thankgiving address over MCCCD’s “announcements” listserv last November. He included a source link in the e-mail to Pat Buchanan’s website where he found Washington’s address. Five professors filed harassment complaints with the district calling Kehowski’s e-mail “hostile” and “derogatory” because of the link to Buchanan’s website, which contained information on Buchanan’s views on immigration and other topics. MCCCD […]

PHOENIX, Ariz., June 25, 2007—After a months-long campaign led by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), the Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) has reached a settlement with Professor Walter Kehowski, allowing him to return to teaching classes in the fall. In March, Kehowski was placed on forced administrative leave and faced possible termination because he e-mailed George Washington’s Thanksgiving address to the MCCCD community last November. Kehowski found the address on Pat Buchanan’s website and linked to the site, where Buchanan also discussed his views on immigration and other topics, in the e-mail. Some MCCCD employees were […]

Glendale Community College’s Walter Kehowski was set to present his case before a faculty appeal hearing this week, but that hearing has been postponed. Kehowski is the math professor whose spring semester was cut short this year when Glendale put him on paid administrative leave and then decided to fire him—pending a Board of Trustees vote—because he sent an e-mail to the college community containing George Washington’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation of 1789 and a link to a citation on Pat Buchanan’s blog. As Sam has skillfully explained at length, Kehowski’s e-mail may have offended some or even reminded them that […]

Dragging this seemingly endless debate one step further, Jon B. Gould was allowed to respond in the pages of The Chronicle of Higher Education to letters critical of his hit piece on FIRE. Despite so many criticisms, arguments, and facts to the contrary, he repeats the same arguments. He claims that “FIRE is inconsistent in challenging private institutions’ policies, a pattern that is explained more by FIRE’s political agenda than by a defensible legal philosophy.” This claim has been well-addressed by FIRE multiple times and by former FIRE president David French, and Gould’s strategy of darkly hinting at FIRE’s “political […]

As the public’s outrage over Glendale Community College Professor Walter Kehowski’s plight continues, Kansas State Representative Benjamin Hodge joins the call for the school district to reinstate Kehowski in a statement released yesterday. Hodge, a trustee of Kansas’s Johnson County Community College, wrote: As the Daily News Record indicated, this is not an isolated incident. It is no secret that one of the least diverse places in Western culture, and that one of the places least tolerant to a diversity of ideas, is the American government college campus. Under the guise of ‘speech codes,’ faculty members have created environments […]

Walter Kehowski may be the most annoying, politically extreme professor in the entire Maricopa County Community College District. Which is exactly why they should not fire him. Kehowski has been on paid administrative leave since early March. He is a mathematics professor at Glendale Community College. In November, he sent out an e-mail that contained George Washington’s Thanksgiving Day proclamation from 1789. Kehowski used his GCC computer and sent the e-mail to all district employees on a site designated for “announcements.” The e-mail contained a link to conservative commentator Pat Buchanan’s Web site, which features his strident views on immigration […]

Professor Walter Kehowski from Glendale Community College is scheduled to appear on FOX News Live today at 2:35 Eastern. The segment will explore Kehowski’s recent fight to keep his job after e-mailing George Washington’s “Thanksgiving Day Proclamation of 1789” to colleagues, an act some employees found offensive because of Kehowski’s source for the speech—Pat Buchanan’s blog. Tune in to FOX News today for more on this ongoing FIRE case.

An e-mail sent six months ago by a Glendale Community College professor to employees of the college district could cost him his job. Math professor Walter Kehowski is facing possible termination because the district says he violated policy, which bans using district e-mail for private or personal matters. But the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a national free-speech group, says it’s much more than that. The November 22nd e-mail, besides including a transcript of George Washington’s Thanksgiving proclamation, contained a link to the Web site of conservative commentator Pat Buchanan. And the Foundation for Individual Rights says Kehowski is […]

For many years now, Walter Kehowski has been a vocal opponent of multiculturalism, diversity education, illegal immigration, and affirmative action. He teaches in the Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD), which has a large number of Hispanic students and faculty members, many of whom find his views abhorrent. As a result, Professor Kehowski has had several run-ins with the faculty and administration of the District. These prior conflicts are now being cited by some as evidence that this whole “George Washington” debacle is more complicated than it seems at first blush, and that perhaps the District’s treatment of Professor Kehowski […]

FIRE President Greg Lukianoff and Glendale Community College Professor Walter Kehowski will appear on FOX News’ “Hannity and Colmes” tonight (9:00 p.m. EST; Greg and Professor Kehowski scheduled to appear at 9:30). Tune in to hear more about this outrageous case.

FIRE’s stunning case at Glendale Community College in the Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) continues to receive considerable notice in media outlets across the nation. The case involves Professor Walter Kehowski, who has been placed on forced administrative leave and recommended for termination because he e-mailed George Washington’s Thanksgiving Address (and a source link to Pat Buchanan’s blog) over an “announcements” listserv to all college employees. Several of Kehowski’s colleagues complained about some of Buchanan’s views regarding immigration, expressed elsewhere on his blog. As a result, Kehowski was charged with violating MCCCD’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy and policies limiting […]

Today’s press release discusses one of the most egregious cases of viewpoint discrimination I’ve come across during my time at FIRE. The case involves Walter Kehowski, a math professor at Glendale Community College—part of the Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) system—who e-mailed a single Thanksgiving message to the entire MCCCD community. On the day before Thanksgiving, Kehowski sent an e-mail containing the text of George Washington’s “Thanksgiving Day Proclamation of 1789” over the district’s “announcements” listserv. Kehowski had found the Proclamation on Pat Buchanan’s blog, and included a link to that webpage in his e-mail. That citation would have […]

April 25, 2007 Chancellor Rufus Glasper Maricopa County Community College District 2411 West 14th Street Tempe, Arizona 85281 Sent via U.S. Mail and Facsimile (480-731-8120) Dear Chancellor Glasper: As you can see from the list of our Directors and Board of Advisors, FIRE unites leaders in the fields of civil rights and civil liberties, scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals across the political and ideological spectrum on behalf of liberty, legal equality, academic freedom, due process, and freedom of speech on America’s college campuses. Our website, thefire.org, will give you a greater sense of our identity and activities. FIRE is gravely […]